Krakow workshop – Christopher Morris

DESCRIPTION

This course goes through the full experience of creating a visual story with all the circumstances of a serious photographic assignment in a well designed and structured way.

It will be led by Christopher Morris, a founding member of the VII Agency and one of the most recognizable world’s photojournalists. During the six days in Krakow you will attend a series of his lectures and cover the assigned story, combining intensive individual shooting in the city with daily editing and critique sessions in order to produce a coherent visual essay.

To maximise your learning and help you achieve best results, we provide:

a real-life assignment

a personal local guide

the Workshopx editors’ assistance

an expertise from a professional printer

a final “pop-up” exhibition with invited guests

a great environment for work, socializing and entertainment

The workshop’s goal: to make you a successful photographic storyteller who is well-equipped to work independently in real-life situations.

Details:

Place: Krakow, Poland
Date: 19-24 June 2018
Participants: 6-12

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

CHRISTOPHER MORRIS

Christopher Morris, based in Paris, was born in California in 1958 and began his career as a documentary conflict photographer working almost exclusively for TIME Magazine, where he has been on contract since 1990. He has been credited with redefining political coverage in America during his years working at the White House for TIME Magazine from 2000 till 2009.

Simultaneously to his career as a photojournalist, Morris has expanded his work into the fashion world. He has received various awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, the Olivier Rebbot Award, the Journalism Award from the Overseas Press Club, two Infinity Awards for photojournalism from the International Center of Photography in New York, the PDN Look Fashion Editorial Award and numerous World Press Photo awards. Morris is a founding member of VII Agency based in New York.christophermorrisphotography.com

PROGRAM

OUR APPROACH

We place a particular emphasis on hands-on training that, in an intensive but structured way, takes you out of your comfort zone and pushes you to challenge your limitations, doubts and fears. The reward is releasing and building up your creativity, unique personal style and self-confidence. It’s something you very rarely achieve at home, or what takes a very long time in the everyday life routine. We speed up the process by putting you in the situation of an photographic assignment, through which you’re guided by a top photographer and supported by our team. To get a better idea of how our workshops go, check the testimonials from our former participants.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

This will be a local Krakow story, whether of an individual, a group or a community. You will research, shoot, edit and eventually sequence it into a coherent photographic essay. You will stay close to your subjects, possibly witnessing personal and intimate situations and spending nights away from your hotel. You will explore the city in a way that is inaccessible for regular visitors and tourists. This will be an entire professional, social and human experience.

We will help you pick and precise a good subject for your assignment in advance of your arrival. We encourage you to do your own research and consult with us your story ideas, but if you do not have a particular subject in mind, we will propose you one that will be based on your fields of interest, accessible, appropriate to your skills and personality, and exciting for you. Your local assistant will help you with the research.

YOUR LOCAL ASSISTANT

Your assistant, working exclusively with you for the entire workshop duration, will be your guide, translator and a person who will help you solve situations in environment foreign to you, but local for him or her. She or he will be also well informed about the subject of your assignment. This will allow you to focus on your work from the first day of the workshop.

CRITIQUE AND EDITING SESSIONS

During the meetings with Christopher Morris you will go with him through your daily shoot and discuss the photographs extensively. This is when the most of the learning happens – in a process in which you gradually discover your personal style and vision, identify and eradicate your mistakes, clarify your message and build the plot of your story.

In order to maximize your time spent with Christopher Morris, each day you will first meet a Workshopx editor, who will help you select the requested number of images for the main session.

POST-PRODUCTION & PRINTING

During the last two days of the workshop you will attend additional sessions of digital post-production and print your selected pictures under the guidance of a professional ILFORD staff printer. The prints will be shown at the “pop-up” exhibition that will close our workshop.

Day 1
Christopher Morris will introduce his work and his philosophy and outline the methodological framework of the workshop. He will also review your portfolios during a group presentation and define your assignments’ goals. You will meet your local assistants who will be ready to introduce you to your subjects.

Days 2 – 5
You will combine shooting in the city with attending individual, scheduled editing sessions, group discussions and further presentations and lectures. The fourth day will be entirely for shooting. On the fifth day the printing sessions will join the schedule.

Day 6
You will attend the final group editing sessions with Christopher Morris, during which you will sequence your photographic story. You will also finish printing your selected photographs.

We will close the workshop with a “pop-up” exhibition of your prints and a public screening of your full essays during a good bye party with invited guests. During the whole course of the workshop, there will be a plenty of occasions to meet, exchange ideas and socialize with other participants, who are coming from all around the world.

Watch a video from the last year’s Krakow workshop with Chien-Chi Chang: vimeo.com

REQUIREMENTS

You should arrive with working knowledge of your equipment and ready to shoot. The workshop is limited to digital cameras – during the critique and photo editing sessions we will use electronic equipment only. Having your own laptop is required. You should be able to download, select and export the images to a portable device on your own.

The workshop will be conducted in English.

APPLY

Application is made by e-mail: contact@workshopx.org (in the message subject please state “Chris Morris workshop”).

Please include: your name, place of residence and a link to your personal website (body of work). If you don’t have a website, please attach a zip file with 10-20 photographs, a bio and a personal statement saying why you’d like to join the workshop.